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Swiss start up Kooaba has launched Paperboy to the UK market, which enables users to share printed newspaper articles with friends via an online portal. The application, which runs on iPhone and Android devices, uses image recognition technology. Kooaba founder and chief executive Herbert Bay said that he aimed to be able to connect to more than 2,000 printed newspapers in 95 countries by the end of the year. He said: "Paperboy can become a valuable tool for publishers in their fight to stay competitive in the face of the digital competition from online or social media.
"As the so-called digital natives come of age and more consumers turn to the internet as their primary source for news and information, the publishing industry needs to find ways to keep subscribers and attract new readers. Paperboy can help bridge that gap between print and online, substantially expanding and enhancing the reading experience." Users can share, email or archive the electronic version and explore related information such as videos or additional images. Among the international titles such as the New York Post and LA Times, UK titles included on the scheme include The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Daily Star, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Belfast Telegraph, Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Evening Post, Evening Standard and Weekend.
Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, Kodak's senior research associate of advanced development, electrophotographic printing solutions, has been honoured by the Society of Imaging Science and Technology with the 2011 Chester F. Carlson Award. The award recognizes Dr. Tyagi for his contributions to the field of electrophotographic research. The Chester F. Carlson Award is awarded annually to one individual whose work advances the state of technology in electrophotographic printing. Dr. Tyagi performs cutting-edge polymer chemistry research to develop and commercialize improved toners for electrophotographic printers.Dr. Tyagi is a scientist, with over 90 patents worldwide, and is working with Kodak research since 1987. Dr. Tyagi received his Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech's Department of Chemical Engineering in 1984. After holding a post-doctoral position at the college, he joined Eastman Kodak Company as a research scientist.
Excessive total area coverage (TAC) for deep blacks could be costing the global print industry hundreds of million of Euros, according to the results of a study by the Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphic Communication (VIGC). The long-held belief in the industry is that the TAC should be between 320% and 360%, but the VIGC investigation revealed that 260%, or even 220%, is more than adequate, as long as the conversion is carried out with the correct profiles. Eddy Hagen, director of the VIGC, comments on the study: "We wanted to find out how low you can go in terms of maximum ink coverage before you see an unacceptable difference. The final result was amazing. The old truth - that you need between 320% and 360% TAC - is not borne out, provided you convert colours correctly." According to Hagen, the possible savings are huge. "The cost of ink represents around 2% to 5% of the cost of the printed material. So imagine that if on the basis of this investigation a company can reduce its ink consumption by 10%, we're talking about saving more than 6 million to 15 million Euros here in Belgium alone."
